Fired crews file against 3 theaters

Fired crews file against 3 theaters

Fired projectionists at three area movie houses have filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board.

Local 395 of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees and Moving Picture Machine Operators has filed a "statement of position" with the National Labor Relations Board's Region 7 offices in Detroit to protest the firings at the State, Campus and Wayside Theatres.

The three movie houses were purchased by the Kerasotes chain of Springfield, Ill. in late December and all union projectionists were fired at that time.

The group's attorney, Gordon A. Gregory of the Detroit law firm of Gregory, Van Lopik, Moore and Jeakle, is charging that Kerasotes' refusal to retain projectionists, or even to consider their retention, was motivated solely by a desire to avoid recognizing Local 395 and is thus in violation of national labor law.

The case has been assigned to Charles Morris at NLRB offices in Detroit. Morris said he would investigate the charges and hoped to have a report prepared within a month.

Members of Local 395 have been picketing the three theaters and handed out flyers over the weekend to patrons standing in line. The flyers stated that without trained union projectionists on the job, "the quality of presentation in these theatres can be expected to slowly erode even as the price goes up," and urged patrons to express their opinions to Robert Kerasotes, owner of Kerasotes Theatres.